Saturday, October 12, 2019

Robopocalypse Report #120

Drones:

Audi unveiled an offroad EV vehicle concept with drones for headlights.

China unleashed an army of drones to wipe out the armyworm infestations in the southern part of the country and seems to have wiped out 98% of them.

Cities are trying to plan for self driving cars.  again.

Flying a drone responsibly turns out to be surprisingly hard.

Drones are being used to study the Amazon Rain Forest's health.

Drones are being used to detect pot shards for archaeology.

There is a surge in drone development.

Google's Wing drones will start delivering FedEx and Walgreen's deliveries.

The first hurricane relief drone was ready to fly, but Hurricane Dorian smashed those plans.

Imperial College's Flying Fish drone literally explodes out of the water.

Parrot's latest drone package includes an immersive virtual cockpit.

Russian police and security forces received special permission to shoot down drones.

Skydio has a drone to challenge DJI with.

UPS has the first delivery drone service approved by the FAA.

Watch UAV Turbines micro turbine powered UAV fly.

Self Driving Cars:

Who is driving the self driving car job market?

A study finds Americans would prefer to drive themselves rather than use a self driving car.

With Levandowski being indicted for 33 felonies, will Silicon Valley change its lack of morality? (hint, probably not)

The NTSB has stated a 2018 Tesla crash was partially caused by the Autopilot software.

Aptiv and Hyundai have teamed up.

Daimler has started testing its self driving trucks on public roads.

Ford is bringing its self driving cars to Austin, TX.

GMV is building a satellite based nav system for self driving cars for BMW.

University of Michigan's self driving cars are using Verizon's 5G network now.

People are reporting collisions with Teslas using the Summon feature.  It doesn't always work.  And can end badly.

Tesla's Smart Summon has been used over a half million times,.

Tesla seems to have acquired DeepScale.

Uber has started mapping Dallas' streets for its self driving cars.

Why we should be thrilled with Waymo's go-slow approach to developing self driving cars.

3d Printing:

A Chicago based startup has 3d printed a mini human heart.

GE has been pursuing the quest for 3d printing a passenger plane engine.

Harvard scientists have created a new, more efficient way of 3d printing organs, including the blood vessels.

There is a new technique for 3d printing biomaterials.

Robotics:


Boston Dynamics' Atlas is now capable of being a gymnast.


Boston Dynamics' Spot is now commercially available.

Long distance heart surgery has been accomplished.

Picnic has a robot that can make 300 pizzas/hour.

Remote controlled lizard robots were used to study Galapagos lava lizard behavior.

Robots are being built to kill invasive species.

A robotic gripper has been developed to mimic the human touch.

Robot surgeons are starting to rival human ones.

Robots built a house in Switzerland.

Scientists have built micro bio hybrid robots.

Squid inspired robots!

Starship's delivery bots are now making deliveries at Purdue University.

Toyota has started training robots via a VR interface.

Exoskeletons:

A mind reading interface attached to an exoskeleton allowed a paralyzed man walk again.

Cyborgism:

A special glove has been designed for prosthetic hands.

Synthetic skin has potential for virtual reality and amputees.

A new robotic hand has been developed for amputees.

New reconfigurable electronics show promise to implantable tech.

A prominent German neuroscientist committed misconduct in brain reading research.

A new prosthetic leg allows amputees to feel the robotic feet and knees in real time.

Biohackers implanted a hard drive in a person's leg.

Automata:

The biggest market in the US for software bot controlled cameras is the schools.

There is an argument to protect American workers from automation.

Software bot driven surveillance has expanded worldwide.

Software Bots:

Google is bringing its Assistant to people without internet.

Intel wants to use software bots to repair spinal nerves.

McDonald's is replacing the person at the drive up sign with a software bot.

OpenAI's bots learned to pay hide and seek.

Should AI researchers get special access visas for traveling?

Deep learning powers finger tip tracking.

A software bot designed a molecule,. It appears to have drug like properties.

Should you care software bots are being used for hiring?

Software bots should not be used to oppress minorities.

Can software bots spot liars?

Software bots are used to ID primate faces in the wild.

A software bot has successfully passed an 8th grade science test.

A software bot was used to mimic a CEO's voice to steal money.

Software bots are being used for heart attack prediction.

Have software bots killed off spam and we didn't notice?

Software bots could revolutionize medicine or make it hell.

Software bots can pass standardized tests but would fail at preschool.

Software bots are being used in the quantum lab.

Software bots are being used to predict outcomes for radiation therapy use for throat and neck cancers.

Software bots are being used to ID genes associated with heart failure.

Software bots are being used to predict depression outcomes.

Software bots can outperform some employees in sales by 400%.

Software bots are being used to improve eye tests.

Software bots are being used to predict climate stress for African farmers.

Software bots are being used to probe dark matter.

Software bots are being used in clinical trials.

Software bots could make health care inequality worse if care is not taken.

Software bots are getting to be as good as people in medical diagnoses.

Software bots that read privacy policies are getting pretty good.

Software bots may not be able to protect us from deep fakes.

Software bots will not save us from deep fakes (again).

Software bots with blind spots might be key to privacy.

Software bots can help with pneumonia x rays.

Software bots can help with biomedical imaging.

Yacht used a software bot to help create their latest album.

META:

NYC Mayor de Blasio wants a tax on robots.

Some are criticizing some backlash for the robopocalypse originating in Silicon Valley.

Asimov's 3 Laws are useless.

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